Author
Topic: How Did You Get Into "Other Lines"? (Read 2372 times)

I was curious how many of you started collecting the "other lines" that we discuss here. Did you start with Star Wars and eventually start branching off into other lines? Did you branch off because of interest, because you couldn't find (or there wasn't) anything new to collect in Star Wars, or maybe a combination of both? Did you collect other lines before you ever got into Star Wars? As I've been thinking about trimming down my non-Star Wars collections due to space/money/etc., I just got to thinking that I might (probably) have never gotten into these lines if it wasn't for collecting Star Wars in the first place.

The only other lines I collect with any sort of regularity at all are Lord of the Rings and Marvel/Spidey-related collectibles. As far as Lord of the Rings goes, I have always looked at the figures, from when they first started showing up before the first movie was even out. I was always a little tempted, but never bit the bullet to buy in. After seeing the movies I was even more tempted, because next to Star Wars (the OT, specifically), these are THE movies for me. Plus, many of Toy Biz's offerings are quite good. I continue to collect these, very minimally, and will probably quit after a few more figures. However, if this had been a line more in scale with Star Wars (smaller), it might have been a different story. However, I probably wouldn't have hardly known about the figures (or known very little) if it wasn't for visiting the aisles, internet sites, and forums because of Star Wars collecting.

Marvel and Spidey stuff (to a lesser degree Batman/DC) has a bit of nostalgia for me like Star Wars. I was into comics growing up, as well as the Secret Wars/Super Powers lines (and certain cartoons), so I have always been a fan of "superheroes". I started off slowly in Marvel Legends, and basically just have a few X-Men to show for it. I've also collected some Spidey (comic and movie) figures along the way, and hope to continue to in some capacity. I might have to cut these areas due to certain factors, although I would like to continue collecting them. I've also been interested at times in expanding a Batman/Justice League/DC collection, or just building up the Marvel Legends collection much more. Again, aside from possibly the movie figures, I wouldn't have known much about these lines either if it wasn't for Star Wars.

My wife and I have always kind of just walked around the toy aisles/stores, even when we were dating and long before I was collecting anything. It just seemed fun. Plus, I've always liked action figures, and have been a collector in some sort for most of my life (toys, comics, sports cards, etc.) I probably would have seen many of these lines, and thought they were cool, but I think the fact that I had dove in with Star Wars and gotten over any embarassment I might have had about shopping/buying "toys" really opened doors to other lines as well. There are a lot of other great lines out there nowadays, and so much I'd collect if I had unlimited funds and space, but it all comes back to Star Wars. Just curious if this was the same for many of you, or if you entered into these collecting worlds in different ways.

Going back to the time when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I collected (played with) 12" GI Joe's. They were toys, though, not collectibles. I hit puberty about the time of SW, so drifted out of toys at that time, though still loved them and comics as well.

Around 1986 I started collecting comics, as much to read as anything else. Every so often I would pick up a Marvel character or two: Venom, spidey, green goblin, Cable, wolverine. Comic shops also sold these hideous little figures (I sent Scott a couple, much to his dismay) of Marvel characters, grossly overpriced, but that would be my first "collection".

I started on SW in 1995, with the orange cards, a story found elsewhere here. I would have to say others influenced my purchasing habits, predominantly folks from boards that I traded with. Drewlam would be responsible for my vehicle collection, having seen his and how cool they looked. Needless to say, as I often do, I carried it a bit overboard

McFarlane is due to conversations on snowtroopers.ca and Brew, over there. I still like the figures, and love the adrenaline rush of finding chase figures, but the line is becoming repetetive, overproduced and with questionable, IMO, players. So scaling back is a natural.

I had an original Homer for some time and decided to get them all at some point, having seen others collections. That line always has stayed well in focus. Again, other people influenced the decision, but ultimately it was a line I liked.

Marvel Legends/spidey figs are my first love, so getting these has been a no brainer. Also a fortunate selective attitude was in place from the get go, so it's saved some money. Not enough money, mind you. But this can be traced back to my love of comics, first in the 80s-90s, and previously as a young child 5-10 at my aunt+uncle's cottage, where if it was raining we read comic books. Had me hands on Amazing Fantasy #15, I did. Dog eared and tattered, but worth more than you could ever get for a mint copy to my relatives.

LOTR I've been in and out of, then back in, in a selective fashion. So very many figures and honestly, I wish they'd made a 3" line, I would have gone whole hog on them. The size issue is just overwhelming though, so limitations are in place

I'm in the same bag as Morgbug here. I was on somthing else before I got hooked on SW.

Toys 65 million years in the making got me hooked. Yes, my first love, Jurassic Park had me snagged. I've been collecting for quite some time. in 1999 when E1 stuff hit, I got hooked on it and the rest is history.

I started my renaissance with vintage Star Wars figures, then migrated to Spawn/KISS figures.A couple years later, the 80's revival began, and I got into GI Joe, Transformers, and MOTU.Then LOTR debuted, and I just HAD to have the figures. Then Marvel Legends came out, and I decided to collect Buffy figures, and, ugh.

I do spend more on toys than I should, but I do enjoy it and my bills are all paid on time, so what the hell, right? I'll stop around when I'm 30, I think.

I started in SW as a kid. When the POTF line debuted, I picked up a Darth Vader and then got more into it when I met Jamie (jjks.) I got out of it around the time all the stores like TRU and KB started doing the big liquidation sales. I just felt like I had too much stuff and no room for it. Same thing happened w/ the Simpsons line. I kept everything Darth Vader that I had and then once I found out about MRs, I got into the mini line simply because they are 100% cheaper and I'd have to pay secondary market and almost every piece of the full scale.

As for SPs, I'm a life-long sports fan and athlete so the attraction to those was natural.

I didn't necessarily want to start a new thread for this, so I thought I'd ask it here. When the Star Wars line re-started back with POTF2 in 95, were you collecting anything else? Was this "new" Star Wars your first foray into collecting (aside from stuff you had growing up/as a kid)? It seems with many of us, Star Wars collecting was sort of the gateway into other lines. I was just wondering how many of you just started out with Star Wars in 1995, or were you currently collecting something else and just added Star Wars in (or switched to it)?

I guess I started collecting with LEGO, when I was about 5 years old. That's pretty much all I collected, until a little movie called Attack Of The Clones came out. Although I had been a huge fan of Star Wars prior to AOTC, (The SE OT VHS was the first time I saw the OT, and I saw TPM in theaters in '99) I had not gotten any of these newfangled SW figures. I ended that dry streak by picking up a Kamino Excape Jango Fett at Wal*Mart. After that, I didn't pick up SW collecting again until about March '04, when I picked up a CW Animated Yoda. I started to more heavily collect SW after that, and eventually branched out into other areas of collecting of things that interested me, like more LEGO, GI Joe, Halo, POTC, etc.

I was collecting Star Trek and some of the Marvel X-Men line from Toy Biz. I also got started in the 12" GI Joe Hall of Fame line a little before really jumping into the Classic Collection stuff. I also was big into the Spawn figures back when they first came out but the repaints in that line quickly killed it for me.

In general I was a toy and comics collector from about 1991 - 1995 then dropped most of the other toy lines when POTF2 came out. I still picked up 12" Joe figures and some odds and ends of other lines but I didn't follow any line like the SW line.

I'm really just a toy fan in general. I love walking through the toy aisles at WM and Target or going to TRU just to look around at what's out there and I'm usually tempted to buy other stuff even though I don't anymore.

E...

Logged

"I sell the drugs that keep you people from seeing dragons at night." - Gus "Psych"

well ever since i was like 6yrs old i've liked starwars. me and my older bro got realy into when we saw my dad vintage toys we were in aw! THen when ep1 came out thats when it all started and i've been collecting since. I also sometimes buy some other toys that are think are cool the latest toy i bought that was'nt star wars were the A.V.P toys back in 05 and thats it . So yeah that how i got into other toy lines.

Well, I was a fan of the videogame Halo so when I heard abut there being action figures with the game I started collecting for the first time. Then, when the RotS started to hit, I picked some up as "what the heck". They got me hooked, though, so I started collecting.